Individual ministerial responsibility

This doctrine states that a Secretary of State is responsible for the success of his department. Ministers (both Secretaries of State and junior ministers) are responsible for the conduct and success of themselves, their subordinates and their civil servants. Therefore, should the department fail to do its job, the Secretary of State responsible for the department is obliged to resign2. Similarly, should a minister or his/her underlings break the law, or act contrary to the written or unwritten rules of Parliament, the minister must resign.

Of course, the problem with all this is that it can create a series of scapegoats in difficult jobs, with ministerial resignations being used as an alternative to actually solving the problem (like constantly changing the captain of a failing sports team). If ministers always had to resign when their departments 'failed', departments such as health, transport, education and the Northern Ireland Office would barely keep ministers for six weeks at a time. Another problem is that it makes it easier for the media to demand resignations for the slightest misdemeanor, as quite a lot comes under the unwritten rules of 'conduct befitting one's position'.

3 Parliamentary rules on matters of corruption are clear, but not exactly logical. MPs and ministers are allowed to accept loans from friends, gifts, free stays in hotels, places on the board of companies and even cash in large brown envelopes, as long as it is all declared on the register of MPs' interests. As long as these are declared, it is held that influence and conflicts of interest should be easy to spot, and so everything is above board. It is if these are not declared, but found out later (as with Mandelson's loan) that it is considered corruption. These things are all investigated by the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges. MPs can also fall foul of the more general instruction to act in accordance with one's position, which is when cruising on Clapham Common becomes a bad idea.